Housewarming
by tsutsuji
Summary: A new life together starts in a new home. Shinichiro/Nanami, yaoi romance. Sequel to "Committment."


**Title: Housewarming**  
Author: Tsutsuji  
Rating: T (m/m romance, slight angst, fluff)  
Warnings: none  
Written for Springkink Round VIII, Nov. 3 2009, Prompt: Shinichiro/Nanami: Domesticity - "Here's a hand to lay in your open palm today"  
Word count: 1674  
Summary: A new life together starts in a new home.  
A/N: This fic is pretty much a sequel to my Shinichiro/Nanami story for last round, "Committment," since apparently they decided to buy a house together after the ceremony. It's always nice when characters let you in on these little details, y'know? XD I believe the technical term for this kind of story is "curtain fic." *grin*

It was a very pleasant reminder that Nanami was stronger than he appeared, Shinichiro thought, as he followed his lover and life-partner into the house with another box of their household possessions. Namami carried the crate of dishes through to their new kitchen almost as easily as if it were empty; Shinichiro only had the box of linens, bulkier but lighter, and he was already puffing with the weight of it.

Namami glanced back over his shoulder when Shinichiro grunted and rested his burden on a corner of the sofa, scowling in a "you better not plan to leave that there!" way, but with an indulgent twinkle of humor in his eye as well.

Shinichiro's breath caught at the sight of him - as it so often did, anyway; a few locks of Nanami's hair had come loose from the ponytail and drifted around his flushed face, his shirt collar was open and askew, and his clothes were rumpled from the moving. He looked both charmingly domestic and just a little wanton, standing there in the middle of the jumble of just-moved-in boxes and furniture.

"That goes in the bedroom," Nanami said, pointing with his chin toward Shinichiro's box. "You can make the bed while you're at it, and put the rest of the linens in the closet in the hall."

Shinichiro was already planning to do this, of course - well, he might not have made the bed right away, if he could have got away with it, but he knew he was trapped now. He picked up the box again, but he sighed.

"Why bother making up the bed, Nana-chan? We're just going to mess it up again in a little while, aren't we?" he said, his long-suffering whine ending in a suggestive grin.

"Shinichiro!" Nanami scolded, predictably and charmingly.

Shinichiro pouted, but he went to do as he was told. He made the bed as quickly as possible, because he wanted to be back out here where he could watch Nanami putter around the place, fussy and efficient as he was in all of these household chores, carefully making their new house into a home.

They had decided it was time to make this move from an apartment to a real house soon after their committment ceremony. The new apartment they moved into after Shinichiro got out of the hospital was not as nice as the old one, and yet similar to it enough that it still seemed to hold shadows of painful memories, like the scar that remained on Shinichiro's chest.

With the help and encouragement of their friends (even including Soushi, although he did seem a little _too_ willing to go look at empty houses alone with Nanami), they had found and claimed this place. It was small and neat, with a private back yard and room for a garden, near the school but far enough away to feel like a sanctuary. Shinichiro was looking forward to the privacy; their apartment house neighbors had never complained, but he'd seen some of them blush and smile behind their hands when they met Nanami sometimes, especially on a morning after one of their more honeymoon-ish nights. He'd hoped Nanami never noticed, because he didn't want his lover to try to stifle the beautiful sounds he made in the midst of passion. He couldn't wait to hear those sweet moans echo off the walls of their new bedroom.

Nanami was most excited about their new kitchen. "I can't wait to cook our first meal here!" he'd said on the day they'd made the decision to take the place. While Shinichiro dutifully made the bed and put the extra sheets and towels away, he could hear Nanami humming happily, along with the clatter of dishes and utensils being sorted out into their new places.

The last of the boxes and crates having been brought in and deposited in the appropriate rooms, Shinichiro wandered around, putting a few things away as he felt inspired, and getting acquainted with the laundry, the fuse box, the outdoor lighting, and the little things that would need fixing or updating once they got settled. All of his exploring was mostly an excuse to pass by the kitchen area as often as possible, just to watch his Nanami-chan revel in his element as domestic goddess.

He nearly forgot what errand he was on when he walked in and saw Nanami up on a stepladder, stretching to reach a shelf above the refrigerator. The day had gotten warm, and Nanami had changed into shorts and a tank top, with his favorite ruffled kitchen apron on top of them - and that particular apron was the same one that he'd worn with nothing underneath on a few memorable occasions. As it was, even with the clothes under it, Nanami's slim, bare legs and soft shoulders under the ruffles looked utterly enticing. It was all Shinichiro could do to restrain himself from lunging into the kitchen and ... his mind went into a pleasant fugue, imagining the things he could do to his lovely Nana-chan up on that stepladder.

The moment passed; Nanami finished arranging whatever he'd been putting away on the high shelf, and hopped down from the ladder, his pony-tail fluttering behind him as he turned away to start the next task. Shinichiro sighed happily, and remembered that he'd been on his way to find the outdoor spigot and the garden chairs.

A few minutes later, he came around the corner of the house to find Nanami standing in the kitchen doorway, looking out at their new back yard. There was a pensive look on his lover's face, and Shinichiro wondered what was so troubling to Nanami about the view. He'd already planned to rake and weed the little plot of garden that the previous owners had let go to seed, and paint the fence that shielded them from the neighbors view on that side.

"I didn't see that before," Nanami said softly. He sounded sad.

Shinichiro turned to follow his gaze. In the back corner of their yard, beyond the weedy garden plot, a tangle of green and brown leaves clung to the privacy fence. Peeking out from the midst of them, he saw a few small blossoms, white flowers shadowed with the palest hint of blue.

"A rose bush?" he said.

"White... roses..."

Nanami's voice sounded far away. Shinichiro frowned at the rambling, half-dead plant, and remembered the snip of shears, petals falling to the ground from any blossom that wasn't perfectly shaped and colored - a hedge of white roses with every stem carefully trained and twisted to its keeper's will.

The last thing they needed in their new home was a reminder of how Aizawa had ruthlessly pruned and shaped their lives.

Shinichiro put his arm around Nanami's shoulder and squeezed gently.

"I'll dig it out and get rid of it," he started to say, but before he finished, he felt Nanami shaking his head, and looked down, surprised.

"No," Namami said, softly but firmly. "We'll keep it, and let it grow wild. Just trim away the old, dead parts, and then it can bloom and grow however it wants to..."

A strand of hair fell lose from behind his ear and drifted against his cheek, making Shinichiro long to caress it aside, to soothe away the fierceness and pain that had suddenly appeared in his lover's soft eyes. Before he could reach out or say anything, Nanami walked over to the straggling rose bush, and touched one of the curling, brown leaves.

"Nanami..." Shinichiro said, questioningly, surprised.

Nanami's hands - the soft hands of a healer, a nurturer, like a mother's hands - spread out gently above the green leaves. Delicate fingers reached toward the pale blossoms but didn't touch them, like a benediction, or maybe like a prayer for forgiveness. Shinichiro felt something curl around his heart, a sweet, warm pain in his chest, somewhere under the scar.

He reached out and rested his palms over Nanami's hands, adding his own blessing for the future to the struggling bush. Nanami leaned back against him, and Shinichiro drew him into an embrace, nuzzling his hair.

"We'll do that," he said, leaning down to press his cheek against Nanami's. "We'll give it a new life - just like ours." He felt as much as saw Nanami close his eyes and smile.

They stood that way for a while, gazing quietly at their yard and their new house. After a few minutes, Nanami half-turned in his arms with a contented sigh.

"I'm almost done putting things away in the kitchen, so I'll be ready to make dinner for us soon...our first meal in our new home!"

"Mmm," Shinichiro hummed against his hair. His arms tightened around Nanami's smaller body, and his lover and life partner wiggled to settle more closely in his embrace. "That sounds wonderful! However..."

"Hm?" Nanami said, twisting to look up at him with soft, questioning eyes.

"Well, I made the bed like you said to, Nana-chan, but it looks too neat now, like we haven't really moved in yet."

He hugged Nanami closer, nuzzled the side of his head, then caught a delicate earlobe between his lips. Nanami shivered and whined his name under his breath, but it didn't really seem to be a protest this time.

"Why don't we go in and mess the bed up again, right now?" Shinichiro murmured into his ear.

"Shinichiro!" Nanami cried, now sounding shocked and blushing adorably. But he still didn't protest, much, when Shinichiro pulled his face up to kiss him, or even when he slid his hand down Nanami's leg and then up again to tease bare skin under the ruffled apron.

"Well, I suppose," Nanami murmured, "That's one way to make a house feel like a home..."

Shinichiro took Nanami's hand, and they walked back into the house together. And as it happened, they didn't get around to having their first meal in their new house together until quite a few hours later.

~~~ *curtain* ~~~


End file.
